Last night, Jessica and I met friends for dinner at Revolution (http://www.revolutionrestaurant.com/) in Durham. This was our second trip to the modern Durham restaurant (click here for our first try), having enjoyed it for Valentine's Day in 2011 enough to recommend it again.
We started our night in the expansive bar, trying some of their specialty cocktails. Jessica ordered one of their two "spicy" drinks and it was quite good, but with a lot of heat. Everyone else seemed to enjoy their selections, and the bar area was surprisingly active for being so early (~ 6 PM) on a Saturday night. For dinner, we were seated at a table in their downstairs seating area. The space was okay, and made better when full of people, but it didn't have quite the atmosphere of the upstairs where the decor is more consistent and upscale. Still, for our group of six, it didn't make any difference because the downstairs allowed us to enjoy each other's company without worry of being too loud!
The table split a few appetizers, and I tried both the scallops and lamb sausage. The scallops had an excellent sear and were properly cooked... not overdone but certainly not raw either. There wasn't anything that struck me as "special" about these scallops, but I definitely was satisfied that they delivered what I hoped. I was honestly surprised that they served five per order; even though they weren't huge, they were still large enough where three could have been the appetizer portion. The lamb sausage, while somewhat plain on the plate, was more unique than the scallops. It was slightly spicy and reminded me of a mereguez sausage (which it probably was meant to be) that I'd had before. I didn't have the chance to taste the sausage, which crumbled from the casing a bit more than I'd like, with the honey, but I imagine that pairing was perfect!
For dinner, I was thrilled to order a chicken-fried ribeye. For those unfamiliar with the concept, chicken-fried steak is typically a pounded-thin round steak that is then coated in flour / batter and fried so that it has an outer crust like fried chicken. In this case, they used an excellent, thick-cut ribeye in place of the thinner, lower quality beef commonly used, and the result was very interesting. First the things I loved about it... high quality steak cooked to a perfect medium rare, crunchy exterior (particularly at the edges) for an excellent texture contrast uncommon with steak, and heavily seasoned for great flavor. Now the things that could have been better... some of the breading was soggy (maybe unavoidable with a thick, juicy steak), the onion gravy was more of an acidic onion marmalade and I was hopping for an actual gravy typical of country-fried steak, and the sweet potato cake wasn't as crisp on the edges as I'd like.
Overall, though, I loved the steak dish. I'm always excited to try something a bit different from the norm, and combining my favorite cut of steak (ribeye) with a favorite preparation I don't have often (chicken-fried) was perfect. There were small areas to improve upon, the easiest being to crisp up the sweet potato cake, but I appreciate the creativeness and the execution of something that I'd never seen before. When I finished my dinner, the plate was entirely clean and that ultimately speaks for itself!
Our group's experience was very positive; everyone seemed to like their meals and the atmosphere allowed for us to converse, joke, and even get a bit loud at times. The service was also impeccable (no water glasses ever empty, food arriving at the same time, etc.) and not rushed as our dinner neared three hours. For a more romantic time at Revolution, I'd definitely make sure to sit upstairs, but that's a small detail. I think that people looking for a fun night our with good and creative food should definitely consider Revolution.
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